if the ackerman angle is the angle of the steering arm to the hub, then the spacer can't affect it because it's parallel to the hub. the design criteria may be from steering axis to thrustline, but the physical angle is built into the spindle itself.
as for the ackerman effect, if you think in the theoretical of the original intent of ackerman steering, which is all 4 wheels turning about the axis of a single point to reduce friction, then no, offset can't affect that either, because small and large concentric circles are still concentric. the
angle is more relevant to the steering axis than it is the tire and this is
because of the effect
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| Originally Posted by Keith DC5 Yeah that's all I've been able to gather which is what lead me to start this thread. However I would assume that with a greater negative offset (wider track width), the you end up with a larger turning radius due to the increase in toe-out angles. In other words, there's gotta be more than steering effort that's affected. |
turning radius gets larger, in the negligible amount of the spacer width, but the left and right turn radii remain concentric, which is ackerman kosher. nothing happened with toe at all...
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No, the Ackerman angle is what creates the Ackerman effect. The angle is an imaginary V that extends from the steering arms, to the center point of the rear axle. This is suspension geometry hence Ackerman angle. This angle causes the resulting toe out on turns, hence Ackerman effect 
Ackerman effect and toe-out are the same thing. |
toe-out is just toe-out. ackerman is ackerman. ackerman and toe-out on turns are similar, as a cause and effect.
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Those spacers were merely an example. The ones I had planned on getting did indeed have extended wheel studs (H&R).
In any case, thanks for your help... have some chocobees:
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thanks, but i don't eat those.
now that ackerman and its physical composition has been beat to death, the more important question is why. hypothetically, if the rim offset resulted in a handling characteristic change other than scrub radius, could it have a positive effect that would be of enough value, handling-wise, to offset the negative effect of a positive scrub radius? if not, why do it?
the most important question is "how will spacers affect handling?" and i think scrub radius is important, but the answer has more to do with the effects of track-width differences front-rear and the effects of the track-width on the roll-center. i do alignments. i'm no engineer. i can't help you with the calculus, or even the data, for the dynamic moments of those effects. i think the spacer will be mostly cosmetic